(MA) Master of Arts
Human Rights and Cultural Diversity
Withdrawn
University of Essex
University of Essex
Human Rights Centre (Essex Law School)
Colchester Campus
Masters
Full-time or part-time
None
MA M90112
26/04/2010
Details
Professional accreditation
None
Admission criteria
A degree with an overall 2:1.
IELTS (International English Language Testing System) code
IELTS 7.0 overall with a minimum component score of 5.5 except for 6.5 in writing
Course qualifiers
A course qualifier is a bracketed addition to your course title to denote a specialisation or pathway that you have achieved via the completion of specific modules during your course. The
specific module requirements for each qualifier title are noted below. Eligibility for any selected qualifier will be determined by the department and confirmed by the final year Board of
Examiners. If the required modules are not successfully completed, your course title will remain as described above without any bracketed addition. Selection of a course qualifier is
optional and student can register preferences or opt-out via Online Module Enrolment (eNROL).
None
Rules of assessment
Rules of assessment are the rules, principles and frameworks which the University uses to calculate your course progression and final results.
Additional notes
None
External examiners
Dr Damien Short
Reader, Director of the Human Rights Consortium
University of London (Institutes and activities)
External Examiners provide an independent overview of our courses, offering their expertise and help towards our continual improvement of course content, teaching, learning, and assessment.
External Examiners are normally academics from other higher education institutions, but may be from the industry, business or the profession as appropriate for the course.
They comment on how well courses align with national standards, and on how well the teaching, learning and assessment methods allow students to develop and demonstrate the relevant knowledge and skills needed to achieve their awards.
External Examiners who are responsible for awards are key members of Boards of Examiners. These boards make decisions about student progression within their course and about whether students can receive their final award.
Programme aims
The programme aims to: give students the opportunities to study current theoretical and practical problems in the recognition and protection of human rights.
These problems are legal, social, political and philosophical, and the programme reflects this in its multidisciplinary approach.
In contrast to the other existing PG human rights courses offered at Essex, the MA in Human Rights and Cultural Diversity will examine human rights specifically in relation to cultural diversity.
This MA enables students who have a particular interest in this specialised area of study and expertise to develop a deeper and broader knowledge and understanding of central issues and debates surrounding the application and justification of human rights within a culturally complex and diverse world.
Prepare students for such careers as e.g. officials in the United Nations system, activists in humanitarian and policy-making non-governmental bodies in the UK and abroad, as journalists, or trade unionists, policy analysts and researchers.
The course aims to prepare students for further independent research in the field of Human Rights
Learning outcomes and learning, teaching and assessment methods
On successful completion of the programme a graduate should demonstrate knowledge and skills as follows:
A: Knowledge and understanding
A1: Achieve a knowledge and understanding of issues concerning the application of human rights within Asia and/or Africa. Students will particularly learn to analyse and evaluate political conflict associated with the defence of human rights in these regions
A2: Achieve a knowledge and understanding of global and regional human rights institutions. These include intergovernmental, governmental and civil society institutions
A3: Examines the influence of cultural conditions in the justification, promotion and critique of human rights. Students will engage with fundamental debates and issues. They will learn to assess and evaluate different perspectives upon the relationship between human rights and culture
A4: Students will learn the historical development of so-called Third Generation rights and evaluate the issues they raise for the defence of human rights in a globally complex environment
A5: Students will learn the historical development of so-called Third Generation rights and evaluate the issues they raise for the defence of human rights in a globally complex environment
A6: Students will achieve a knowledge and understanding of the source of controversial issues raised by different disciplinary perspectives upon human rights. They will learn to assess these
A7: Achieve a knowledge and understanding of different perspectives upon jurisprudential issues in relation to social differences
A8: Students will learn to identify and evaluate central and recurring problems in the promotion of human rights within a culturally diverse context
A9: Assess and evaluate the role of religion in the development of human rights
Learning methods
Learning methods Skills 1-9 will be developed through lecture, class and seminar sessions.
HU901 addresses each of these skills.
Core courses focus upon particular aspects of the skills.
Assessment methods
Assessment methods Skills 1-9 will be formally assessed through coursework essays, take-home exam papers and, end-of- year examinations.
B: Intellectual and cognitive skills
B1: Develop a clear and coherent understanding of politically and legally complex issues, even when information is incomplete
B2: Communicate their conclusions clearly.
B3: Demonstrate self-direction and originality in tackling and solving problems, and in collecting and commenting on complex information.
B4: Demonstrate self-direction and originality in tackling and solving problems, and in collecting and commenting on complex information.
Learning methods
Skill 1 is developed in all courses, but especially in HU901:
Colloquium by means of e.g.
Discussion of different country case studies, or discussions of draft clauses of human rights documents or declarations for some of the 3rd generation rights Skill 2 is developed in all courses and in HU901: Colloquium by means of seminar discussion, role-play exercises, assigned oral presentations or all three
Skills 3 and 4 are developed through the exercise of selecting and pursuing a dissertation topic that addresses both the theoretical and practical aspects of human rights in a particular country or region, or in a particular sector of human rights activity, such as election monitoring or peace-keeping.
The Scheme Diretor is present during all of the Collquium classes and most of the remaining courses unclude class and discussion groups overseen by the relevant tutors.
Class and seminar discussions are facilitated by these means.
Assessment methods
Skills 1 and 2 are formally assessed through essay and dissertation marking.
Skills 3 and 4 are formally assessed through the marking of dissertations, and informally assessed in supervisory sessions during the preparation of dissertations.
C: Practical skills
C1: Retrieve, evaluate and select for relevance and credibility, information from a range of international sources.
C2: Plan, undertake and report a bibliographically based piece of research.
C3: Develop techniques for assessing theoretical proposals as well as practical procedures, whether legal or customary.
Learning methods
All graduates receive training from a trained Subject Librarian in the use of legal and other databases relevant to human rights, as well as the resources of a research library.
All graduates learn how to use these databases unaided, and how to incorporate results in essay and dissertation material.
Sessions are held in the Colloquium during the Spring and Summer terms devoted to training in the preparation of dissertations in the core course disciplines and criteria for the selection of dissertation topics.
Some sessions of the Colloquium allow students to present their ideas for dissertations to the others taking the MA Skills 1, 2, and 3 are developed through formal supervision and marking of dissertations, as well as comments and marking of coursework essays
Assessment methods
Assessment consists of essay and dissertation marking
D: Key skills
D1: Communicate effectively at the appropriate level with appropriate audiences.
D2: (i) Apply the techniques of several different bodies of theory and practice to the same cases and practical situations and (ii) Recognise some of the marks of successful and failed decision-making in complex conflict situations.
D3: N/A
D4: Exercise initiative and learn independently.
D5: Class and seminar-based activities require collaborative exercises and problem-solving
Learning methods
Skill 1: All courses require students to participate actively in discussion, and to co-operate with colleagues in arriving at shared results on exercises.
All core courses require students to work independently on essays, and there is a dissertation component.
Skill 4: Students cannot graduate from the MA in only a single discipline.
The exposure to more than one discipline enables them to enter into different systematic approaches to a single problem.
Skill 4 (i) There is an emphasis in the Colloquium and in most of the core courses on case studies that illustrate the practical and political realities of human rights work.
Assessment methods
Skills 1 and 4 are assessed through class-based work and discussion Skill 6 is assessed through course work and dissertation marking, and in feedback on class-based work in the Colloquium